Mexican Moon (thing)

Johnette Napolitano has dark powers. She is also one of the most underrated creative forces in modern rock music. Not only does she write some of the most powerful and passionate lyrics in the business, she also wrote the majority of the music on this overpowering album, painted the cover art and took the photographs in the album sleeve. With her ability to play just about any musical instrument you put in front of her and a voice that can either seduce you into a trance or fell stone columns, you wonder why she needs the rest of the band. Trust me. She does. Her efforts outside of Concrete Blonde always had something missing. James Mankey's guitar mates with Johnette's voice and to underestimate him is also a mistake. The presence of either Harry Rushakoff or Paul Thompson, who share the percussional side of things on the album, completes the picture. Johnette handles most of the bass on the album, as she often does whenever possible.

Mexican Moon was the last album from Concrete Blonde before they imploded, only to resurface and reform years later. The album is intense and dark and if you listen to the entire opus on headphones at just the right volume you might just break up your own band at the end of it all.

Jenny I Read

Jenny I read something you said about
Rock and Roll and life and death
Ah, Jenny I read they carried you home
Broken, beaten all alone

Yeah, you wanted it all
But the American dream was nothing to write home about

Mexican Moon

The album's title track waxes poetically about the themes that are constant in the music of Concrete Blonde. Despair mingles with anxious hope that is but a dream of the past and never close enough to touch. Picture yourself fled to Mexico and unable to return home, left with only the memories of what was and might have been.

Oh, señor
I run but the damage has been done
Miles have gone away
And my amore he never come

Feeling the pinch, feeling the hope
Feeling the void deep in my soul
Feeling my feelings so out of control
Cause the years have not been kind to me, I know

Jonestown

To open a song with an defiant speech from Jim Jones is not something easily done. For a song sung from the point of view of a cult leader with too much power over the flock and has lost control of his identity and struggles with the issues of why he is where he is, it is strangely appropriate.

They don't know who to run to
They don't know where to go
Unless you tell them what to think
They don't know what they know

Rain

A little sprinkling of melancholy follows with the fifth track on the album. After staring down the barrel of a shotgun with much of the first four tracks, here is your opportunity to catch your breath. The very notion of rain has always induced reflection and memory, and such is the theme of this song. There is waiting and anticipation of the arrival of someone who has been lost and yet you know they won't be coming back.

Rain
Laughing at the window
Thought I saw your face
Only cloudy images
On my window pane
And all I hear is rain
And things I tried to say

Ah, yes, Love, the great all-powerful force of the universe that is greater than any of the beings that hold dominion in any court by virtue of its grace makes those beings possible. This is why you've been driving through the rain to find that old friend who doesn't think you'll ever really show up.

Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I'm About To Say)

I killed you in my mind today
I cut you up, I watched you bleed
I killed you in my heart today
For everything you did to me

When You Smile

When you smile, I don't know what to do
Cause I could lose everything in a minute or two
And it seems like the end of the world
When you smile

The vision of true love and the magic that can happen between two people has always been given a different kind of shine by Johnette Napolitano in her words and the music she frames them with, however this track is one of two on the album not penned by Johnette. Written by Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate fame, it appears as one of the band's special selections because they believe it in.

Close To Home

The album has been a rough ride over the lakes and rivers of the soul and now it is time to come full circle. This song sounds a bit like a happy little tune you might sing around a campfire with your summertime camp friends. Recounting the places you have been to in your travels you return to the chorus and chant I'm getting closer and closer to home. The rub here is that you realize you have never truly been home, but you are getting closer all the time. It has nothing to do with where in the world you are at this moment. It has to do with where you are within yourself.

It's a matter of time before they find me
I'm waiting for a sign from one of my kind
I'm waiting for the time to fall behind me
I'm waiting for a sign from one of my kind

End Of The Line

The second cover song on the album, this is a Brian Ferry composition. The connection between Concrete Blonde and Roxy Music becomes two-fold with Paul Thompson on the drums. The song falls somewhat clumsily into the natural progression of the album, but at the same time it brings us to last call at the saloon.

If you ever miss me
If I should cross your mind
You know where to find me
I'll be waiting at the end of the line

Bajo La Lune Mexicana

Literal translations of lyrics from one language to another rarely works very well. This is the title track sung in Spanish, fitting well into the feel of the Mexican setting. As I do not really speak Spanish I always enjoyed this version, but when I played it for my wife, whose first language is Spanish, she laughed. The words have been translated one by one into Spanish, and when you do that, it becomes clumsy and incorrect. You have to rewrite the whole song to do it correctly. Treat it as an extra track on the album, as the previous track is the proper conclusion to this great album.

Lyrics by Johnette NapolitanoExcept When You Smile by Steve Wynnand End Of The Line by Brian FerryLyrics may be mildly off targetAs they were never released in printed form